The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1887-12-03
WARS OF THE FUTURE.
Important Views Expressed by Generai
Sheridan at philadelphia.

Important Views Expressed by General
sheridan at philadelphia.
No simpler. stronger or more sensi-
BILE address was delivered at the CEN
tennial celebration in Philadelphia
than the brief speech made by Lieu
tenant-Ganeral Sheridan, in reply to a
oast to the army. Considering the
source and also the subject, it was
very striking. and possessed n degree
Of Importance not shared by some o
more sonorous and pretentious elocu-
lion.
Abruptly breaking into his subject
by remarking that while he hal ''nev-
er discussed the Constitution very
much" he had ''done good deal of
fighting for it." he proceeded to say
that 1.-THE so-called army of the United
States is very small one, but the
real army is one of sky millions; and
if the people are satisfied with that,
nobody has any right to complains"
The regular army of the United States is a
mere fiction. The real army is all able-bodied
citizens capable of bearing arms. Modified it
would amount to four or five millions Of good
soldiers. Now, then, if all the shipping Of
europe was allowed to come over here, carry
ing men and materials of war, and the navy
nder Admiral Luce was to let them come
yer without interfering with them in any way,
they could not carry men and war material
enough to maze one campaign. So that the
army of the United States in that sense IS about
the largest army in the world
But the most remarkable utterance
of General Sheridan, in view of the
fact that his whole life has been de-
voted TO the profession of arms, and
that his fame and fortune have come
from it, was the one which succeeded,
On the future of war:
I am rather on the side-o Senator Ingalls, in
what he said tonight. He wants to make a
continental republic of this country. But there
Is one thing that you should appreciate. and
that is that the improvement in guns and in the
material of war, in dynamite and other ex-
plosves, and in breech-loading guns, is rapidly
bringing US TO period when war will be elm
mated from history-when we can no longer
stand up AMI fight each other, and when we will
nave to resort to something else. Now, what
will that something else be? 1t will be arbitra-
lion. mean what say when 1 express the be-
lief that those who may live until the next CEN
;ennal will find that arbitration will rule the
whole world.
These are the words of a celebrated
,oldier who has won his renown not
only by planning campaigns which
gallant troops have executed, but also
by his personal presence in the fore
'front.' of battle. They afford sug-
ges,ive contrast and a contrast of
which Americans need not be ashamed,
10 a famous sentiment attributed to
Germany's greatest soldier. Moltke:
War is an element in the order of the world
ordained by God, for in it the noblest virtues of
mankind are developed.
The views expressed by General
Sheridan at Philadelphia as to the
great changes soon to be wrought by
the introduction of deadlier appliances
of war, are not new with him. They
have been elected on less formal oc-
casions, and his annual report of year
before last contains a general allusion
10 them in its suggestion of the vastly
increased part to be played by enor-
nous masses of cavalry or other swift
ly-moving troops, operating upon the
general food resources and other sup
plies and industries of an enemy, in
stead of risking the discriminating
shock of great armies facing each
other with the horribly destructive in
ventions of modern science.
The larger deduction that war itself
must soon vanish, and be succeeded by
better modes of settling disputes be-
tween nations, was a peculiarly fitting
contribution to the centennial celebra-
tion, and formed one of the worthiest
as well as most significant utterances
of that occasion. But will the brave
soldiers dream come true?-M Y
Sun